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Monday, February 3, 2014

Giveaway & Review of Loving the Missing Link by Julia Assel Thomas

GIVEAWAY ENDS FEBRUARY 14TH AT 12:00 NOON (CST)**COMMENT ON THIS POST FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!

Julia Asel Thomas – Loving the Missing Link

book details, review, & giveaway contest!

Loving
the Missing Linkis a fabulous tale about love, success,
hope and music. During the 1970's. Young Cheryl Simpson feels trapped in her small
Missouri town. As her mother tries to help her find a way up and out, Cheryl
begins to feel that it is all an impossible dream. She sees herself living a
boring and dismal life for the rest of her days. Just at the moment when she is
about to give up on happiness, she gets the opportunity to join her high school
band. The band promises a connection with the world outside her town, but
Cheryl does not see any future for herself in music. It is just a tool to get
where she wants to go. However, Cheryl’s mother arranges for Cheryl to take
private lessons with an accomplished musician, who helps her realize the beauty
and awesome power of music.

Still,
Cheryl feels that small-town inferiority and finds it too hard to believe that
she could ever be anyone special out in the “real” world. On the eve of a music
contest that could help her earn a music scholarship, Cheryl begins to panic.
Scared and feeling alone, Cheryl runs off with her high school sweetheart and
gets married, leaving the band behind.

During
the next years, Cheryl and her husband make a life for themselves. Cheryl meets
friends along the way who help guide her to becoming the woman she wants to be.
She becomes interested in the arts again. All the while, Cheryl and husband
Jerry face the challenges of homelessness, miscarriage and an extra-marital
affair before an unexpected disaster brings Cheryl’s life crashing to the
ground. Cheryl survives, with the help of her extraordinary friends and her
life-long love for music.

revealing narration. Her debut book,
Loving the Missing Link, presents the engrossing and moving story of a young,
small town girl who grows up, lives and loves while trying to find a balance
between despair and hope.

Like the protagonist in her debut book, Loving
the Missing Link, Julia Asel Thomas knows small town life. However, Julia’s
experiences were quite different than Cheryl’s. Julia is the middle child of
seven children and the daughter of a church organist and a business manager.
Growing up in the small town of Hamilton, Missouri, Julia’s family enjoyed a
reputation as a bright and interesting family. Julia thrived on the quiet and
carefree life she lived in that gentle place.

When Julia was in high school, she earned a
scholarship for a trip to Cali, Colombia as a foreign exchange student. The
experience, although it only lasted a few brief months, had a profound
influence on the rest of her life. After her time abroad, Julia realized in a
very real way that, although customs may differ from culture to culture, the
substance of human emotions is constant. We all need love. We all need to feel
secure. We all have happy moments and sad moments. Back from Colombia, Julia
become ever more interested in capturing these human emotions through music and
writing.

After high school, Julia took a break before
going on to college. During this time, she married her husband, Will. Will
joined the Air Force, and Julia accompanied him to bases around the country,
taking college classes in each town where they resided. Their two children were
born in Las Vegas, Nevada, while Will was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base.
Married in 1976, Julia and Will are thrilled to celebrate each new anniversary
and look forward to staying together for life.

Julia began writing fiction at the age of ten,
when her 5th grade teacher gave her the assignment to write about “My Worst
Day.” Julia took the opportunity to concoct every possible disaster a young
child could face during the course of a normal day. The teacher loved her work
and asked her to read it to the class. From then on, Julia wanted nothing more
than to be a writer.

In 2007, Julia began earning her living by
writing articles, press releases and website content for a number of clients.
As she settled into a routine of working every day on her writing, the old urge
to write fiction resurfaced. In 2012, Julia started with a story she had
written in 1985 and continued it to create the story in Loving the Missing
Link.

After Julia’s husband, Will retired from the Air Force, they moved back to
Missouri and now live in Kansas City, Missouri. Find out more about this author
by visiting her online:

Julia Asel
Thomas tackles several ‘big issues’ (acceptance, self-education, and
self-understanding to name a few) in Loving the Missing Link. For Cheryl,
things are a little more complicated than the ordinary low self-esteem of a
lower class teenager girl in a small town and the ending was full of twists and
turns that I hadn’t expected. The main character, Cheryl, struggles to find
herself amidst the demands of her mother, expectations of her teachers, and the
unconditional acceptance of her boyfriend, Jerry. Cheryl is very much a loner
who has trouble expressing her thoughts and feelings to others; she finds a
haven in her journal and what is so difficult to express in life is captured on
those safe pages. Cheryl’s practice of journaling is where I, as a reader was
able to really gain understanding of her as a character. We are different in so
many ways where I am quite confident, she was shy and fearful and seemed
content with being average. I found myself cheering her on as she began on the
path to self-understanding.

I enjoy the
style of Thomas’s writing and appreciate the honest thoughts from the
characters. Loving the Missing Link
is told in such a way that I quickly became engrossed with the character
development and enjoyed it right through to the end. It would be hard to say
more without spoilers. When Cheryl finds herself lost as a housewife in a
college town, she meets Sid of Sid’s Shelves and the two become friends. Cheryl
was running away from a controlling well-meaning mother and found comfort in
the non-judgmental Sid who was much more tactful than her mother yet still had
a way of helping push Cheryl toward her full potential. Somehow Thomas manages
to make each chapter meaningful in Cheryl’s coming of age. Based on the wide
range of issues, this would be a good pick for book discussions.

The constant
theme of music throughout Loving the Missing Link could appeal
to those who enjoy music as well as those more familiar with the creation of
music. Thomas has such a way with words as she takes an ordinary young woman
from a small town and helps her find her voice (literally). I hope to read more
from Thomas in the future; there is a rhythm and vibe to her writing that spoke
to me. Even though Cheryl and I are two very different people, I know people
who struggle with self-esteem and confidence and it the insight from Cheryl’s
journal allowed me to see things from a different perspective. With just a few
pages left to read, I set down Loving the Missing Link and was
reluctant to pick it up again. By that time, I knew how things were going to
end but I was not ready to say good bye to the characters I had been cheering
for throughout the journey.

Loving the Missing Link is a first published works for
Thomas but I do hope she writes more, and I would definitely be interested in a
sequel if there is one in the future. Cheryl came so far in Loving
the Missing Link and like all of us; she is a work in progress. I would
like to be there to see where future paths will lead.

Julia recently experienced a WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour with me AND YOU CAN TOO!!! If you have a website or blog and would like to host
one of our touring authors or schedule a tour of your own, please email us at
blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com.

I hope to win because I love to read! I judge a book by it's cover and or title and never read the synopsis - I love to be surprised when I read a book. The title drew me in and I really would like to read it!

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The Big Lemon!

I am Crystal Otto (formerly Crystal Casavant) - Writer, entrepreneur, over-achiever, and talented hard-worker. I own Relax Consulting, am a Blog Tour Manager for WOW! Women on Writing, owner of a dairy farm, work as a professional musician, and yet...my favorite titles are: Mom and Wife. I spend my time doing things I love, with and for those people I love.